In the tobacco field, sorbent materials are used for the selective quantification of hazardous compounds in, or the removal of such compounds from, tobacco-based products, which compounds are either originally present in the raw tobacco leaf itself or generated when the product is processed (e.g. by curing) or consumed (e.g. by smoking or chewing). Nitroso-containing compounds such as nitrosamines, in particular the nitroso compounds known as tobacco-specific nitrosamines (“TSNAs”) and their precursors, are examples of such compounds. TSNAs include:

Materials prepared by molecular imprinting (molecularly imprinted polymers or “MIPs”) are polymers having sites adapted to bind selectively with targeted compounds.
There has been an attempt to remove nicotine from tobacco smoke using MIPS, as reported in Liu, Y., et al., Molecularly imprinted Solid-Phase Extraction Sorbent for Removal of Nicotine from Tobacco Smoke, Analytical Letters, Vol. 36, No. 8, pp. 1631-1645 (2003). The MIP described in the article was designed to bind nicotine and not nitrosamines. It is unclear if the MIP was in fact selective for nicotine as the scientific method producing the data was lacking in key control-checking elements.
WO 2005/112670, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses MIPs that are selective for TSNAs relative to nicotine. That is to say, when exposed to a mixture of a TSNA and nicotine, the MIP adsorbs proportionately more TSNA than nicotine. The MIPs are prepared by polymerizing an acidic or highly acidic monomer, such as methacrylic acid (“MAA”), trifluoromethacrylic acid (“TFMAA”), 4-vinylbenzoic acid or 4-vinyl benzene sulphonic acid, with a crosslinker such as ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (“EDMA”), trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate (TRIM) or pentaerythritol tetraacrylate in the presence of a template molecule, such as 4-(methylpropenyl-amino)-1-pyridin-3-yl-butan-1-ol (“4 MPAPB”) or pyridine carbinol. The resulting materials are described in the Examples as being in the form of powder prepared by crushing and grinding the solid polymer.